majority is not always so great a palladium as is implied by Lord Morley's statements. Even in the old state of thingsbefore the reforms of 1909-when the Government of India was an unadulterated bureaucracy, the spectacle of the Government of India differing from their constitutional superior in Whitehall was not entirely unknown. And if an exclusive bureaucracy could occasionally prove restive, the presumption of a purely democratic assembly proving altogether unamenable to the autocracy of Charles Street cannot be said to be altogether unreasonable. But just as the old unmitigated bureaucracy used. to be brought to reason, where it showed a refractory tendency, by the salutary power reserved to the Viceroy to overrule his Council, so there is no reason to believe, that the same expedient would not succeed with a democratic legislature in India.

The latest reforming legislation has, however, abandoned. this obsolete principle of an official majority, and substituted new devices for attaining the old end. The Indian legislatures are not even now sovereign law making bodies. They are not sovereign because (1) they cannot make laws, like a sovereign legislative authority, on any topic whatsoever, and touching any person or place within their jurisdiction. Thus they cannot pass laws affecting (a) Acts of British Parliament passed after 1860 and extending to British India, including therein theArmy Act and Air Force Act. They cannot touch (b) Acts of Parliament enabling the Secretary of State to raise money in England on behalf of the Government of India, (c) and in general, affecting any part of the written or unwritten constitutions of the United Kingdom or affecting the authority of Parliament; (d) nor can they pass any laws on which may depend the allegiance of the subjects of the Crown of Great Britain or the sovereignty or dominion of the King-Emperor over any part of British India.* Of course they cannot alter or amend in any way this main Act, the Government of India

*See 65 (2). The Indian legislatures cannot pass any law empowering any Court in India, other than a High Court, to inflict the death penalty on the European British subjects of His Majesty without the previous sanction of the Secretary of State in Council.

Act of 1919, on which now their own existence and authority .depend.

II. The Chief characteristics of the Indian Legislatures.

Besides these kinds of laws, which they can in no way touch, there are other subjects on which, though competent to pass laws, they cannot undertake legislation without the previous sanction of the Governor-General. Such subjects are: (a) the public debt and public revenues of India, or imposing any charges on the same, (b) the religion and religious rites and usages of the British subjects in India, (c) the relations of the Government with foreign princes or states, (d) and the discipline and maintenance of any part of His Majesty's Military and Naval forces, (e) and any measure regulating any provincial subject which has not been reserved by rules under the present Act for exclusive legislation by the central legislature; or repealing or amending any act of a provincial legislature, or an ordinance by the Governor-General. (2) Besides being precluded from passing any laws of the classes enumerated above, there is a further limitation upon their authority which make them non-sovereign. All laws passed by them may be declared ultra vires by the court of law, should any such law be involved in a case com ing before them in the ordinary course of their work.

Further, even as far as British India is concerned, the whole legislative authority is not centred in them. Apart from the omnipotent British Parliament, power is vested in the Governor-General to pass ordinances independent of his council, which ordinances have all the force of laws duly passed by the council at least for six months,*

*See s. 72.

Before proceeding to discuss the composition and functions of the Indian legislatures under the Act of 1919, we may summarise their salient characteristics as under:

(a) They are non-sovereign law-making bodies,

(b) derived from and dependent upon the Executive,
(c) with concurrent legislative authority, often overrid-
ing their own powers,

(d) and having their scope definitely restricted in all
departments of their activity.

Previous to 1919, they had the remarkable distinction of being single-chamber legislatures, which still endures in the provincial councils, but is discarded in the Imperial Indian Legislature. Their composition and the basis of their electrates still continue to be peculiar, but the old feature of a standing official majority has now been dropped. The old connection of the executive head of the government as an exofficio president of the legislature is likewise abandoned, though the Viceroy and the provincial satraps still possess powers of calling, proroguing, dissolving or addressing their legislatures.

III. The Composition of the Indian Legislatures.

The central Indian Legislature is, under the Act of 1919, a bicameral institution. The two chambers are known, respectively, as the Council of State and the Legislative Assembly. The former continues for 5 years, and the latter for three, unless sooner dissolved by the Governor-General, who is an integral part of the Legislature by s. 63.

The Council of State consists of 60 members of whom 33 are elected, and the remaining 27 nominated by the Governor

General, so, however, that not more than 20 members should be officials, and one should be a person nominated as the result of an election in Berar. Of the elected members :

Non-Muhammadan constituencies give 16 members.

Burma, while the general constituencies are formed, one each, in Assam and Burma. Punjab has a special constituency for the Sikhs.

These make 30 out of the 33 elected members of the Council of State. But the remaining three are to be found in the following constituencies entitled to representation in rotation viz -2 for East and West Punjab (Muhammadan) and Bihar and Orissa (non-Muhammadan) all the three being bracketed together; and 1 from Assam (Non-Muhammadan) and Assam (Muhammadan) both being bracketed together. The rule about representation in rotation by bracketed constituencies allows alternate elections, to the first two (if there are 2 members between 3 constituencies), or the first one at the first general election and all bye-elections for the rest of the life of the Council of State, and all subsequent odd general elections and bye-elections following; while the second two, (or the second one as the case may be) are allowed the right at the second and all even general elections following, as well as their respective bye-elections following. Bihar and Orissa (non

Muhammadan) is entitled to elect a third member to the second, fourth, and succeeding alternate Councils of State.

IV. Qualifications and Disqualifications of the Candidates.

(a) Non-British subjects, (b) females, (c) members of another legislature constituted under this Act, (d) legal practitioners dismissed or suspended from practice by a competent court, (e) or those similarly adjudged to be of unsound mind, (f) undischarged insolvents, (g) or, though discharged, yet without certificate from a proper court that the insolvency was caused by misfortune and not misconduct, or (h) persons under 25 years of age-are all disqualified from being elected members of the Council of State. But there are modifications of these disqualifications. (1) Thus, if a ruler of an Indian state or any subject of such a state is not ineligible to a local council, such a person cannot be ineligible to the Council of State merely for want of being a British subject. (2) The bar against dismissed or suspended legal practitioners may be removed by an order of the Governor-General in Council for the purpose. (3) Similarly, persons convicted by a criminal court, with a sentence of transportation or imprisonment for more than six months subsisting, cannot be eligible to the Council of State for five years after the sentence has expired, unless the offence is pardoned. (4) And persons guilty of corrupt practices at elections, or convicted under ch. IX A of the Indian Penal Code, and sentenced for a term of imprisonment longer than six months, are similarly debarred for five years. (5) The sex disqualification is removable, presumably, by a resolution passed by the Council of State after one month's notice.

Of the positive qualifications required of the would-be members of the Council of State, only one need be mentioned ; viz. that he must be entered as a voter in the electoral roll of the constituency, special or general, from which he seeks elec